Medvedev gave the Chinese President a book on Orthodoxy in China

Plot: Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China in September 2010

BEIJING, Sept. 27 - RIA Novosti (News), Maria Chaplygin. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is on an official visit to China, gave President Hu Jintao at a meeting on Monday, a book about the history of Orthodoxy in China.

The book "Orthodoxy in China" is dedicated to the history of Orthodoxy in the country since 1685. As reported by RIA Novosti news agency a member of the Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate Dmitry Petrovsky, who is a member of the delegation accompanying the President of Russia in China, the publication is made in the Russian and Chinese languages. Edition of the book is dedicated to 325 anniversary of Orthodoxy in China.

The publication tells the story of the origin and formation of Orthodox culture in China and contains more than 200 illustrations.

"Many of the documents for the first time are found in the scientific circulation," - said Petrovsky. He said that the book is already in the library of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and in the presidential library.

In the preface to the book the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill writes "that Russia and China are now confidently going through the development of strategic partnership and an important tool in this road is the knowledge of our shared history."

Today in China there are about 15,000 Orthodox Christians, most of whom live in Beijing, Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia. According to Petrovsky, there will soon be signed the Framework Memoranda of order of interaction and learning of Chinese students in religious schools in the PRC.